Most of us teach multiple grade levels. I teach 4 year olds through 94 year olds. I skip 12 year olds through somewhere in the 60's, though. I think that probably needs explaining, right? I teach Junior Kindergarten through fourth grade and also facilitate music and drum circles at an assisted living center every 2-3 months. The youngest were probably my most difficult age to plan for starting out as a brand new teacher and I continue searching for great material to add to my "collection". We all know how it is - in a singular 30 minute lesson with the younger kiddos we might go through 10-15 activities! Interestingly, my oldest sometimes seem the same! I seek materials from various sources; blogs, bools, fellow teachers, and websites. Several years ago I found a childrens music performer named Nancy Stewart. Each month she posts a Song of the Month! You can search by category, year/month, and alphabetically, and even better - all her songs are downloadable, some have visuals to download, and most have the sheet music to download - all for FREE! YES! There are songs for Eid, Christmas, St. Patirck's Day, Diwali, Valentines, seasonal songs and everything in between. Most of the music is original and I have found some really wonderful material! One of my favorites is the Rhythm Stick Song. Nancy so kindly gave me permission to share the song with you here - the mp3 is available on her site - click the link above. Hope you enjoy it - my kiddos do! We also make up additional verses - "With my sticks I run...", walk, hop, etc. My favorite rhythm sticks are the Basic Beat Combination Sticks pictured below. I love these - perfectly sized at 8" long, no splintering, and one is smooth and the other ridged. They are about $3.00 a pair, and an awesome investment! You can get them here from West Music. Have fun with these! Happy New Year!
Create a sub plan so that you are good to go in the event of needing a substitute teacher as an art teacher or music teacher can make your life easier. There are many tips on putting together a sub plan and here are a few to get your started.
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tom...
We have begun our unit on living systems in science (thank GOSH because Earth and Physical science have quite literally killed me this year...seriously, I feel like the most incompetent teacher when I teach science...but I digress...). Our main focus for the past week before Spring Break was the circulatory and respiratory systems. I thought I would share some of the things we have been doing, in case some of you are in the same unit yourselves. To get us started, we watched a few BrainPOP videos about circulation and blood. I found these in the HEALTH section, not the science section. The kids were very enthralled with these videos (they ALWAYS are really) There was quite a lot of information in them, which got us started on the right foot. The videos mentioned how the circulatory system was the delivery system of the body and that all systems were connected to this one. After some discussion, the students created this Circulation Data Disk from the Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body (Grades 2-4) (affiliate link) book. The idea of this circular disk was to show how all of the organs in the body played a very special part in relation to the circulatory system. I purposefully whited out the info on the disk so that the kids could do the research themselves. Using our health and science books, the students discovered the role of each organ in circulatory system. We then used the Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body (Grades 2-4) (affiliate link) book and created a model of the heart. The kids diagrammed the model to up the rigor a bit. They then placed these in their science journals. Another great find (that the kids had a blast playing) was the Circulation Game from Ellen McHenry's homeschooling website. This is a free download and I am so glad I found it! It took a while to set up and explain, but once they were going, the kids really were into the game. They learned quite a bit about how blood travels through the body and how it disposes of waste. (just a little note, I printed out 5 of these and had each table play. That way, there weren't as many people playing on one game board) Finally, the kids watched the School House Rock video, "Do the Circulation". (I have the actual DVD Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition), (affiliate link) but you can get it on YouTube if the school doesn't block it....like mine does) I gave them the words and, combining language arts with science, we looked for all of the facts and opinions (as well as figurative language) in the song. We discussed why the writers would put opinions and figurative language in a song intended to teach us about the Circulatory system. The students decided that it was because without the opinions and figurative language, the song would be B.O.R.I.N.G! We also began working on our Body Systems project on Google Drive. I made a template for each body system and the kids all began filling in the information about the circulatory system. This worked out perfect here because the kids had so much background knowledge at this point. They didn't really need to do as much research since we were learning so much as it was! (click here to get the project for your own class!) This is a screenshot of the slide before the kids actually did any work. I forgot to take pictures of them working! To explore the respiratory system (a bit further, as we really were talking about it all along with the circulatory system), we first diagrammed the organs involved. Then, the students did a little experiment to measure their vital lung capacity (how much air can be forcibly taken in and blown out) and the tidal lung capacity (how much is taken in and out during normal breathing). The kids has SO much fun with this one! They really were surprised at how much air they *couldn't* blow. I think they all thought they would pop the balloons in one breath when, in actuality, they hardly inflated them at all! You can find the exact experiment and printables here. So there you have it. Our basic introduction to the systems of the human body. Up next is the digestive system. Wish me luck ;) What experiments have you conducted in your class to teach your students about the circulatory and respiratory systems? Follow me on Snapchat for even more teaching ideas!
I so thoroughly enjoyed this, I just had to share. :D “We’ve carefully evaluated the thought processes of several crafters (erm, us!) and identified all the regions* of a crafter’s br…
I learned this song from my KTIP mentor, Alicia Franklin, during my first year teaching. I introduce this song in kindergarten and we sing it everyday when we line up. I sing the first note as a fermata and hold it until every student is joining in and doing their job to line up. There are hand motions to accompany the song. On the first word "my", we raise our hands in the air (this makes it easy to see who is actually paying attention in line and ready to sing the song). Then, we do what the song says. Phrase 1: place hands back Phrase 2: exaggerate good posture Phrase 3: take 2 fingers, point at eyes then straight ahead Phrase 4: hands return behind back Phrase 5: zip lips, pretend to put in pocket, hands return behind back, mouth is closed When the kids get to 1st grade, the song only makes guest appearances when we need help remembering how to line up or when I want to see if they can apply the musical concept we just learned. Using the Song For Assessment Assess Tempo If we learned about tempo that day, we may choose a tempo (largo, moderato, allegro) and sing our song accordingly. They may also get to line up to a tempo. I may ask them to show me allegro feet, largo feet, or moderato feet to line up. Depending on how much time is left in class, I may do this individually or in small groups. If I do it individually, I usually take notes in my grade book for a performance assessment. Older students can watch the conductor and respond to accelerandos and ritardandos. Assess Dynamics If we learned about dynamics that day, we may choose a dynamic level for the entire song (piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte) or watch the conductor to see how the dynamic levels change throughout the song. Older students can usually remember a pattern to assign different dynamic levels to each phrase. Similar to the game discussed above, sometimes we can line up with piano feet (tiptoeing) or forte feet (stomping). Again, depending on the time remaining in class, this is either done individually or in small groups and is sometimes used as a performance assessment. Assess Melody If we learned about melodic direction that day, we may use our hand levels to show the melodic contour. (That's why I like the simple shape of this melody going upward then downward.) If we discussed pitch, we may sing it in a high key or a low key. Assess Harmony If we learned about minor harmony (Halloween), we may choose to change the song to minor and make it sound spooky. (All the kids LOVE this!) Assess Timbre If we discussed different types of voices (speaking, whisper, calling, singing), we may choose to use different voices to use throughout the entire song, or we may change our voices for each phrase. I also have voice cards that I can hold up and show the students what to change to. (View the next post for printable voice cards.) Assess Rhythm If we discussed rhythm (long and short sounds), we may sing the song exaggerating note lengths in tenuto or staccato style. If we discussed a fermata, we may choose one or two words to have a fermata and sing those words really long. Coda These are just a few examples of how I use our line up song for assessment. Sometimes, instead of telling them how to sing it, I let the kids pick a variation to sing. Again, I only sing it every time with kindergarten; and they never get tired of singing it. It only appears occasionally with older grades. It appears sometimes as a warning to those not ready for the hall: "Do we HAVE to revisit kindergarten and sing the line-up song?" Their behavior is quickly corrected. Many older students LOVE the line up song, as it brings nostalgia from kindergarten. Even if you have a line-up song already in place, you could probably use these assessment strategies with your song as well. I would love to hear other ideas to use line-up songs as assessment tools. If you have some more ideas, please comment below.
Creepy crawly spiders! Heights! The dark! These are some common top fears to name a few, and if you're anything like me, heck, you're not to...
HI — I no longer update this page ~ but “MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES in COMICS ED” is available at my NEW COMICS WORKSHOP site HERE >>… ~ Marek … AND ALSO: Psst! Tea…
Tips for setting up your student seating arrangements for cooperative learning, including options for permanent and temporary teams.
An English educator's blog about teaching, classroom organization, and Common Core resources.
Read through our favorite classroom management hacks and then hop over and become a Plato Pack member for even more teaching tools, strategies and support.
Song Index
Upper elementary blog with practical, rigorous, classroom tested ideas to implement with your students.
I teach reading at an elementary school. I love what I do! I wanted to share some "ways to praise" that we use in my classroom. These aren't my own ideas just the ones my students love. And here's how it looks: { I look FABULOUS! } Click HERE for printable. =) In what ways do YOU praise?
Imagination Workout Printable Click the link above to download Attalie’s Imagination Workout free printable art worksheet.
Here is a sub lesson adapted from a handout in Ande Cook's Art Starters book called "A Fun Game." Basically, the artist is being asked to draw their interpretations of several different things. It's fun! It's a Fun Game! I wrote out all the directions and everything a sub would need to know to teach this lesson. I used this for grades 2nd grade and up. The Ande Cook handouts were part of a SchoolArts subscription, or you can get her book: Art Starters
Secondary Classrooms: 18 Things to Consider When Decorating
A positive classroom culture will impact both the way student's feel about school and how they learn - 4 ideas for creating positive classroom culture.
Thousands of teachers have used these tried and true GUARANTEED tups to stop students from blurting out. Chatty Class? YOU NEED TO READ THIS!
SILLY 4 is over… so sad!! SILLY 5 is currently scheduled for January 2012, but I am working on some other online classes for the summer and fall — stay tuned! (Or sign up for my newsletter to…
Let students learn about parts of the house with fun pictures. There's also a worksheet to test students' knowledge about the names of rooms in English. - ESL worksheets
Organized Chaos: helping music teachers embrace the chaos of creativity through purposeful organization and simple ideas!
Excuse our noise... musicians at work! :) After reviewing rhythm patterns at the beginning of the year, 3rd grade classes began working on layering rhythm patterns together. This is one of the more di
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
If you struggle with classroom management no matter how many different strategies you try, there's a chance you're doing something to get in your own way.
This past week, we learned about synonyms. The kids really grasped the concept by mid-week! I am excited to see them start using synonyms...
This FREE handout is a great activity for warm-ups or even early finishers. This handout was inspired by the book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. Here is the BLANK version. This is a good opti…
A simple matching worksheet. Students have to match the words with the correct pictures. This worksheet belongs to the topic " Room in the house " . Very simple and effective. - ESL worksheets
An Elementary Teaching Blog with tips, ideas and freebies for your classroom. For new teachers and seasoned teachers alike!
We have been concentrating on myths in our reading/writing (to connect to the Native American unit we just wrapped up) and I wanted to share a few things we did with you. First, we read The Gift of the Sacred Dog (Reading Rainbow Book) , which is a myth to tell how the Native peoples were gifted the horse. It really was a great myth to read because it is pretty typical of all myths. We were able to really see all of the major elements found within myths. We then created a simple "door" foldable (I have no idea if that is what it is called...it is just what I called it) with all of the major traits of a myth on it. The students looked through The Gift of the Sacred Dog (Reading Rainbow Book) and picked out examples of all the major mythical traits. Next, students were given their own myths to read. In partners, they read them aloud (to work on fluency) and then picked out the major mythical traits as well. This information went on the bottom portion of the foldable so the students had a side by side comparison of the two myths. As a class, we put all the information together on a big class chart (which, of course, I did NOT take a picture of!) Doing this allowed the students to see just how universal these mythological traits were and how they could be found in one way or another within the myths. They also saw that not all of the myths had every.single trait, and that was ok too. Next, I wanted the students to transfer this knowledge into writing their own myths. The students went outside and we listened, looked, felt, and smelled nature. They then wrote all of their observations down in a circle map. Once that was done, the kids thought of one observation they wanted to "explain". It could have been why black widows have spots or why trees are rooted in the ground and can't move. We went over and over how these myths were not to be the scientific explanation, but a creative explanation that happened long ago and involved nature. After their question was chosen, the students created an answer. They had enough exposure to myths at this point to understand that I wanted them to have a creative answer that would then be explained throughout the story the were going to write. Since they knew where they were going to start, and where they wanted to finish, I asked them to fill in this myth trait chart with all of the elements they thought they would want to include. This was more of a brainstorm sheet, so if they ended up not using the ideas, that was ok. I just wanted them to begin to think about what supernatural elements, or whatnot they might include. Next, came the rough draft, followed by numerous peer revision sessions, and finally a final draft. Overall, these came out good. They seemed to get the point of the myth and how it is used in traditional cultures (which was the point of it all) and I am pleased with that. What are you working on in your reading/writing block?
Even een keer wat anders dan zingen... Probeer dan deze leuke en laagdrempelige muziekles voor de middenbouw over Bodysound! Download hieronder alle documenten voor deze les. - Klik HIER voor de lesbeschrijving - Klik HIER voor de PowerPoint - Klik HIER voor de afbeeldingen Tip: De afbeeldingen van de Bodysounds zijn bedoeld om de leerlingen zelf ritmes te laten maken. Deze zult u dus even een aantal keren moeten afdrukken en uitknippen. Muziek-juf! #middenbouw #bodysounds #ritmes
Happy Mother's Day to all you fabulous mothers out there! I wrote this post early and scheduled it to go out today because I'm celebrating with my family today. We're starting with a fabulous brunch (my own family, my sister and her family, and my mom and dad), then all the girls in the family are going to see the Cirque du Soleil, and then I get to return to a fantastic supper cooked by my wonderful husband (and hopefully cleaned up by my girls). Can't think of a better way to spend the day! OK ... on with the post. I only have one math journal entry to share with you today. I had planned to do another one on Friday, but a coworker of mine brought quite a few of my journals with her to our board's "share fair" on Friday. No journals = no journal entry for the day ... that's all right though, it gave us more time to finish up our Mother's Day activity. We're still in our 2D geometry unit - just need to finish up transformational geometry before we move on to fractions. This journal entry was all about symmetry. Symmetry isn't a new concept for my students, but rotational symmetry is new for my grade 5 students. This is the right-side of our journal entry - the one I model (I use my document camera to project it over the smartboard while I work on it) for the students to copy. We started out with our learning goal, then made a T-chart to compare Lines of Symmetry and Rotational Symmetry. We gave a definition for both, the cut out a trapezoid, square, and parallelogram for each side. For the lines of symmetry, we folded the shapes to check for symmetry, then drew the lines on the shape. We glued the shape down so that it could still be folded to check for symmetry (tricky with the square - we could put glue on 1/8 of the shape so that it could still fold). We discussed the "big idea" that regular polygons had the same number of lines of symmetry as sides on the shape. For the rotational symmetry side, we attached the shapes to the page using brass fasteners, and then traced the shape on the page. We could then rotate the shapes to check for rotational symmetry. Students also completed their "left-side thinking" - learning goal in student-friendly terms, what I know, what I learned, proof, and a reflection. They work on this side independently. I really like how this student completed another example of rotational symmetry, using a different shape then we used on the right side. At the beginning of class the next day, one student reviews the lesson by sharing his or her "left-side thinking". They put their journals under the document camera, and talk us through their thinking. Ever since we have started the left-side thinking, at least one of my students asks me if they can be chosen to share the next day ... now that screams success and engagement to me! What more can I ask for??? Well, that's about it ... Happy Sunday, and Happy Mother's Day! Hope all you mommies get lovingly spoiled today! Interactive Math Journal Interactive Math Journal 2 Building Better Math Responses Math Concept Posters InLinkz.com
I was in a heated IEP meeting one time, and a teacher angrily blurted out, 'What do you want from me? Do you want me
A booklet I made in preparation for my continuing Orff teacher certification. It contains helpful references to Orff techniques as well as how to set out an Orff style score in Sibelius & Finale.
